A MUM has revealed how she was forced to flee her family home with her five children after being terrorised by two baby-faced brothers.

Nicola Pratt and her kids were targeted by tearaway teens Billy and Tim Richards on the Beechdale Estate, Walsall, during a two-year reign of terror.

Yob Billy, 17, and 13 year-old Tim physically and verbally abused her children and threw faeces at her windows - and even set fire to their garden fence.

The family eventually fled their home and are now living at a new address.

But last week Nicola, 36, came face-to-face with the brothers again when she gave evidence against them in court and they were each handed ASBOs.

The two-year orders ban the brothers from causing harassment and distress to other local families and they could face jail if they breach them.

Last night, arthritis sufferer Nicola said: “It’s been hell. I was called a fat cripple for two years by these thugs and they constantly bullied my kids. They threw faeces at my window, as well as bottles, glass, bricks, mud, and eggs over my fence.

Fire

“The last straw came when they set fire to the fence. Luckily, we saw the fire in time and it was put out before it spread to the house.”

Nicola and children Katie, 17, Simon, 15, Rebecca, 11, Chloe, eight, and six year-old Jessica moved into their home in Hadley Way in 2006. The full-time mum had moved back to the Midlands from Great Yarmouth to help care for her mother who had developed cancer.

“My son Simon would stay up all night just in case the Richards attacked the house,” Nicola said. “Jessica had to sleep with me because she was so scared of the boys who would call her a deaf idiot because she couldn’t hear in one ear.

“I was eventually put on anti-depressants because the abuse got so bad and I was also given sleeping tablets.

“It was so awful because they were abusing my children and I could never let them play outside because I knew the Richards would bully them. Yet whenever I complained to their parents, it was my kids who were labelled the troublemakers. I was at my wits’ end and just didn’t know what to do.”

After contacting Beechdale Housing Association and its ASBO team, Nicola was told to keep a diary of the abuse – which were used in evidence against the brothers.

She said: “I had thought about backing out of going to court, but my children told me I had to give evidence because that was the only way to stop the Richards.

“No-one else from the estate felt they could stand up in court because they are so scared of the brothers.

“I feel very sorry for people still living there because of these two, as I just don’t know how effective this ASBO will be.

“I’m so glad that we have moved away now and we are just trying to rebuild our lives. I really do hope that if these boys break the ASBO, someone living on the estate will have the courage to stand against them and go to the association and police.”

June Moriarty, chief executive of Beechdale Housing Association, said: “We are delighted that we have got this ASBO against the Richards brothers.

“We have been working on this case for a while and it shows that with the support of the tenants as witnesses, we can do something about them.

“Beechdale is a nice place to live and we don’t have many cases like this.”